Emil Toman

What made the person, painter and teacher Emil Toman stand out was an uncompromising love of freedom.

Initially chief graphic artist in the national bank, at the Vienna Federal Training and Research Institute of Graphic Arts Master of Arts Emil Toman was given the task which inspired and fulfilled him alongside his passion as a painter. He saw the work with visionary, fresh young people as a mutually stimulating exchange of ideas. The teacher Emil Toman understood how to encourage freedom and individuality in an exemplary manner in the forms of expression of the many different students. For him this was an unconditional requirement for uninhibited artistic development. The passionately progressive dedication of his young colleagues reflects his longing in his own painting.
 In the young Emil Toman a one-year study trip to Cairo and Sudan revealed his love of the desert. He earned his living by selling works there, which is why from this period there are unfortunately only a few of the pictures which very much characterize his later work.

 Emil Toman´s works have been presented and honored in many exhibitions. These include in the Modern Art Museum in Chile, in Cairo, Zagreb, the Vienna Secession and Salzburg. The latest major exhibition was dedicated to his 75th birthday in St. Pölten.

 In his pictures Emil Toman channelled the happiness he experienced during his extended journeys and walks in nature. Here he recorded powerful emotions rather than depicting what he saw, however. The biggest wish of the nature lover was a philosophical mergence with the endless expanse of the universe, as some of his pictures indicate in the title. To paint the waves of his sensations as authentically as possible the obsessed artist experimented tirelessly with new stylistic methods of expression and ultimately discovered Art Informelle for himself.

 The abstract painting of Art Informell does not indicate a standardized style, and is also no longer based on shapes such as circle, square, rectangle, instead it rather represents an artist attitude. Unlike geometric abstraction Art Informell is not based on an excessive theoretical superstructure. This openness inspires new possibilities. Art Informell works are hard to subject to art criticism because the pictures do not reveal any describable elements. The picture area becomes a field of action, spontaneity is more important than the composition of the picture.